Copyright (c) 2018 Baptist Press. Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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Nat'l CP 2.59% ahead of projection

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist Convention national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are 2.59 percent above the year-to-date budgeted projection, and 0.01 percent above contributions received during the same time frame last year, according to a news release from D. August Boto, SBC Executive Committee interim president and executive vice president for convention policy.

The total includes receipts from state conventions and fellowships, churches and individuals for distribution according to the 2017-2018 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.

As of Aug. 31, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget through the first 11 months of the convention's fiscal year totaled $180,552,467.92. The gifts are $4,552,467.92 more than the $176 million year-to-date budgeted amount to support Southern Baptist Convention ministries globally and across North America and $18,533.30 more than the $180,533,934.62 received through the end of August 2017.

Designated giving of $190,000,448.45 for the same year-to-date period is 1.69 percent, or $3,157,163.59, above gifts of $186,843,284.86 received at this point last year. This total includes only those gifts received and distributed by the Executive Committee and does not reflect designated gifts contributed directly to SBC entities.

The convention-adopted budget is distributed 50.41 percent to international missions through IMB, 22.79 percent to North American missions through NAMB, 22.16 percent to theological education through the convention's six seminaries, 2.99 percent to the SBC operating budget and 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. GuideStone Financial Resources and LifeWay Christian Resources are self-sustaining and do not receive CP funding.

According to the 2017-2018 budget adopted by the SBC at its June 2017 annual meeting in Phoenix, if the convention exceeds its annual budget goal of $192 million, IMB's share will go to 53.4 percent of any overage in Cooperative Program Allocation Budget receipts. Other ministry entities of the SBC will receive their adopted percentage amounts and the SBC Executive Committee and operating budget's portion will be reduced to 0.0 percent of any overage.

The Cooperative Program is a unified program of giving through which a local church is able to contribute to the various ministries of its state or regional Baptist convention and to the various missions and ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention with each contribution. State and regional Baptist conventions retain a portion of church contributions to the Cooperative Program to support work in their respective areas and forward a percentage to Southern Baptist Convention national and international causes. The percentage of distribution from the states is at the discretion of the messengers of each state convention through the adoption of the state convention's annual budget. The totals in this release reflect only the SBC portion of Cooperative Program receipts.

CP allocation budget receipts received by the Executive Committee are reported monthly to the executives of the entities of the convention, to the state offices, to the denominational papers and are posted online at www.cpmissions.net/CPReports.

The end-of-month total represents money received by the Executive Committee by the close of the last business day of each month. Month-to-month swings reflect a number of factors, including the number of Sundays in a given month, the day of the month churches forward their CP contributions to their state conventions and the timing of when state conventions forward the national portion of their CP contributions to the Executive Committee.

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